Political Values in a Time of COVID-19
| DOI | 10.1177/2041905820978839 |
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
24 POLITICAL INSIGHT • DECEMBER 2020
At the start of 2020, following the
high drama of Brexit deadlock
at Westminster and a decisive
general election, British politics
looked to be entering a period of relative
calm. Labour leadership candidates talked of a
process of rebuilding while Boris Johnson was
celebrating a 80-seat majority that would at
last allow him to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and ‘unleash
Britain’s potential,’ but what both main parties
could agree on was that we were about to
enter a rather quieter for party politics.
They were right, but not in the way
they had assumed. With the coming of
COVID-19 MPs have been largely absent
from Westminster and, with the Coronavirus
Act 2020 handing wide-ranging powers
to the executive, the legislature has played
a relatively small part in the politics of
the pandemic. At a grassroots level, the
cancellation of party conferences has also
muted the voices of both the Conservative
and Labour grassroots.
Yet COVID-19 has also shaken up the
terms of political debate. Public health
restrictions have posed questions about
the trade-o between liberty and public
health. Emergency economic measures
triggered a rapid expansion in the size of
the state. Discussion then moved to the
speed at which this economic support for
individuals and businesses would be tapered
o. And politicians and commentators have
already begun to wonder whether tax rises
Political Values in a
Time of COVID-19
The UK’s electoral geography has been transformed in recent years.
But have political values changed, too? Tim Bale and Alan Wager
report on a recent study mapping the values of both Labour and the
Conservatives and their voters.
or spending cuts will pay for the crisis, and
whether the pandemic has revealed the need
for structural change in the UK’s economic
model.
Meanwhile, the debate over
#BlackLivesMatter has also been raging,
prompting calls for ‘a war on woke’ among
Conservatives opposed to anything to
do with what they see as the ‘political
correctness’ and ‘cancel culture’ associated
with identity politics – doubtless with one
eye on holding on to the ‘Red (now Blue)
Wall’ seats they won from Labour in 2019 but
which economic hard times could easily put
back in play by 2024.
Measuring economic and social
values
At the start of the year – following the
general election, but before COVID-19 – we
decided to map the fundamental values of
both the Labour and Conservative parties
and their voters. The electoral geography of
© Press Association
Political Insight December 2020 BU.indd 24Political Insight December 2020 BU.indd 24 10/11/2020 15:4610/11/2020 15:46
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